COULD NOVEMBER ELECTIONS DOOM REDISTRICTING REFORM?

Virginia is closer to passing redistricting reform than ever. But anti-gerrymandering advocate Brian Cannon says both Democrats and Republicans are whispering that the idea is doomed if their opponents get power.

TWO KEY HOUSE RACES TEST WESTERN HENRICO AS A SHIFTING POLITICAL BATTLEGROUND

Three Republicans had represented the 73rd House District in the General Assembly over a 35-year span. Two GOP delegates had held the neighboring 72nd House District seat in succession for 27 years. But in 2017 the GOP lost its dominant grip on the two western Henrico County districts in a crashing blue wave that gave both seats — and nearly party control of the House — to Democrats. Two years later, Republicans are pushing hard to regain both seats

REDISTRICTING LEFT SPEAKER KIRK COX'S DISTRICT UP FOR GRABS

Down in the southern part of Chesterfield County, just north of the Appomattox River, Sheila Bynum-Coleman is likely to find some of the voters she’ll need to cross the threshold on Election Day in her bid to unseat House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights. Door-knocking there on a recent Saturday, Bynum-Coleman left door tags at the homes of “low-turnout Democrats”

DEMOCRAT GOODMAN AGAIN CHALLENGING INCUMBENT FOWLER IN 55TH DISTRICT HOUSE RACE

Two candidates who know each other well are facing off again in the 55th District House of Delegates race. Incumbent Republican and retired businessman Buddy Fowler is being challenged by Democrat Morgan Goodman, an environmental specialist at the Virginia Department for Environmental Quality, in the Nov. 5 election. It’s a repeat of the race two years ago

IN RURAL VIRGINIA, DEMOCRATS CLIMB A STEEP HILL TRYING TO FLIP GOP SEATS

Beneath a cloudy October sky, the Clifford Sorghum Festival has it all for rural Virginians: a vintage press extracting juice from a hip-high pile of sorghum canes, a bluegrass band wailing away, raffles to win a hog or a quilt, and in quiet conversations around the church yard, a political candidate seeking to make her mark. Christian Worth, 49, is a rarity in these parts, a Democrat running for a seat in a district where rock-ribbed Republicans have dominated for generations.

VIRGINIA LOCALITIES PAY THE PRICE FOR ELECTIONS EVERY YEAR

Running an election every year costs more money, that’s the bottom line, but it’s tough to pin down exactly how much more. Most costs are ongoing, and just a baseline regardless of how often you hold an election. For instance the cost of voting equipment, staffing the Department of Elections, keeping voter registration lists up to date.

DOZENS OF DRONES HAVE BEEN SPOTTED NEAR VIRGINIA PRISONS. AT LEAST ONE WAS CARRYING DRUGS.

In late August, as security staff was leaving Buckingham Correctional Center, they found a small white drone sitting on the side of the road with a package attached to it. They were told by a shift commander to leave it alone since it was outside the prison’s perimeter and called Virginia State Police, who found $500 worth of marijuana, an eight ball of cocaine, a cellphone, three SIM cards and a handcuff key.

A QUIET VIRGINIA REGULATORY REFORM MAKES PROGRESS

As in so many things, Virginia was first — in this case, to regulate professions, beginning in 1639 with a law “for the regulating [of] phisitians and chirurgeons" — but a pilot program to cut red tape is moving faster than expected, a new report from Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne suggests.

SWING DISTRICT DEMOCRATS TREAD CAREFULLY ON CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT

While impeachment fever consumes Washington, House Democrats back home in swing districts are walking a fine line between backing the impeachment inquiry and calling for the removal of President Trump from office. ...It is a more complicated political calculation for Democrats in swing districts, where they tread carefully. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer who managed to narrowly flip her conservative Virginia district into the Democratic column in the 2018 midterms, last month helped prod Mrs. Pelosi to launch the inquiry.

IMPEACHMENT SUPPORT GROWS, BUT SO DOES THE PUBLIC DIVIDE

CULPEPER, Va. — Over lunch at the Frost Cafe, a corner diner in a picturesque pocket of Virginia that President Trump won handily in 2016, opinion over his impeachment is as varied as anywhere in the country. Garland Gentry, 74, a pro-Trump retiree, declared the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry “another in a long line of hoaxes,” while Cindy Rafala, 59, a therapist, sat nearby and wondered, “If we don’t impeach, then what are our principles?”

WHISTLEBLOWER SAYS NAVY SHIPBUILDERS IGNORED NUCLEAR SUBMARINE TESTING PROCEDURES FOR YEARS

A whistleblower has accused the country’s largest shipbuilder of ignoring the Navy’s testing and certification requirements, allegedly putting sailors’ lives at risk by degrading the stealth capabilities of U.S. nuclear submarines. The whistleblower, an engineer named Ari Lawrence, held a senior role with Huntington Ingalls’s submarine division, Newport News Shipbuilding, until October 2017.

JUDGE NIXES NEWPORT NEWS INDUSTRIAL’S BID FOR 22 SEPARATE JURY TRIALS IN RACE DISCRIMINATION CASE

A federal judge has rejected a request by a Newport News Shipbuilding subsidiary for 22 separate jury trials in a pending racial discrimination case against the company. In a motion earlier this year asking for nearly two dozen trials, Newport News Industrial contended that the “hodgepodge” of claims brought by the suing workers should not be combined into one trial.

$100M GIFT TO GO TOWARD FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS AT UVA

A new scholarship program aimed at attracting first-generation students to the University of Virginia will be established as part of a $100 million gift announced Saturday. Alumnus David Walentas, a New York real estate developer, and his wife, Jane, donated the $100 million.

$100 MILLION GIFT TO U-VA. DEDICATED TO STUDENTS WHOSE PARENTS DIDN’T GO TO COLLEGE

David Walentas didn’t know anyone who had been to college when he was growing up. His father, a postal clerk, was paralyzed by a stroke when Walentas was a little boy, so he and his brother were sent to live and work on a farm. It was something halfway between being an indentured servant and an orphan, he said. They would get up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows and muck out the barn, go to school and come back home to milk and shovel again.

KAREN JACKSON SAYS NEW COLLEGE INSTITUTE IS MAKING PROGRESS

Halfway into her six months at the helm of New College Institute, Karen Jackson says she’s accomplishing what she set out to do: get NCI in sync with the future. NCI opened in 2006 to offer bachelor’s and master’s degree programs via partnerships with various state universities, along with training and professional development programs. Jackson, a former Virginia secretary of technology, is the institution’s interim director

SUPREME COURT TO WEIGH VIRGINIA LIFE SENTENCES FOR SNIPER LEE BOYD MALVO

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday over whether to uphold Virginia’s life sentences without parole imposed on Washington sniper Lee Boyd Malvo for murders and other crimes committed when he was 17.

VIRGINIA’S ASH TREES ARE UNDER SIEGE

The emerald ash borer looks like nothing so much as an Elvis impersonator in insect form. When hit with light, its green and gold body sparkles as if the bug is wearing a sequined jumpsuit; its eyes, glistening protuberances that consume most of its head, command attention. Both the insect and the impersonator are objects of fascination, things that are strange and extravagant, out of place in the sober light of day. But where the latter is a curiosity, the former is a threat.

ATLANTIC AVENUE GROUP WANTS TO CLEAN UP VIRGINIA BEACH’S RESORT AREA

Members of a resort area group who want to spruce up Atlantic Avenue are feeling strong after a few big wins. They succeeded in working with the city to remove those big brotherly no-cursing signs. More than 100 of them with the crossed-out jibberish in a red circle — meant to represent foul language — were removed in August.

FORMER HALLWOOD TOWN CLERK INDICTED ON 65 EMBEZZLEMENT COUNTS

A grand jury in Accomack on Oct. 7 indicted former Hallwood town clerk Angela H. Taylor on 65 felony counts of embezzling from the town. Taylor, 46, is a Hallwood resident who had been under investigation by Virginia State Police after her vehicle, containing town financial records, burned up last year

REGIONAL JAIL APPEARS TO BE BRISTOL'S ONLY VIABLE ALTERNATIVE

As recently as 2018, Bristol Virginia City Council studied closing the city’s nearly 50-year-old jail and sending all prisoners to the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon — but decided against it. That remains an option today — yet, in a cruel twist, continuing to operate the deteriorating, seriously overcrowded city jail while also paying to house a fourth of its prisoners in other jails remains a less expensive option for a city with no fiscal capacity to construct a replacement. Rock, meet hard place.

A HAMPTON ROADS CASINO? THE ODDS ARE LONG.

The Las Vegas strip glitters and entices, its casinos and luxury hotels exerting a magnetic pull on patrons as strong as the electric lights that cast a glow far into the surrounding desert. The city in Nevada is one of several in America built on gambling, a list that includes Nevada’s other gaming epicenter in Reno, Atlantic City in New Jersey and Biloxi, Miss.

VIRGINIA’S LAX ETHICS LAWS LEGALIZE CORRUPTION

In Maryland, a veteran lawmaker has been charged with using campaign funds to cover her personal expenses. She faces the possibility of years behind bars. In Virginia, her underlying offense would be no offense at all. In fact, it is perfectly legal to use campaign accounts for personal expenses in the Old Dominion, thanks to a Republican-controlled legislature that has refused repeated attempts at reform.

COOPERATIVE LOCAL RELATIONSHIPS SHOULD STAY

Of course city, county and University of Virginia staff should meet regularly to share ideas. But that ought not come at the expense of eye-to-eye meetings involving elected city and county officials and high-ranking UVa leaders.

MUCH AT STAKE FOR BOTH PARTIES IN VIRGINIA ELECTIONS

Last week, the Wason Center for Public Policy, a highly respected political science institute at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, released the results of its latest statewide polling ahead of next month’s General Assembly elections, and the data point to the possibility of major shifts of power in Richmond.

A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR HOW TO CREATE A NEW ECONOMY IN COAL COUNTRY

Here’s an idea for how coal-producing counties can build a new economy once coal goes away. It might not be a great idea, but there are so few ideas out there that even a subpar idea goes to the front of a very short line. So let’s get to it. First, bear with us as we work through the chain of logic:

A STEP FORWARD

Online communication is a critical ingredient for 21st-century life. Great ideas at the kitchen table can turn into small businesses operated from the living room. Appointments at the doctor’s office can be augmented by telehealth checkups. Emergency alerts about incoming severe weather can save lives.

ABRENIO: HERE’S WHAT VIRGINIA’S COAL MINERS ACTUALLY NEED

Recently, I traveled from Northern Virginia to Buchanan County, Va., to tour a coal mine. I took an elevator thousands of feet below ground to learn what miners actually do. As a kid, I lived in Buchanan County. Half-Filipino, I was a minority living in “coal country.” Virginia is representative of the divide in the United States. In Northern Virginia, our economy booms with technology jobs. A lot of our residents either work for or subcontract with the federal government. In contrast, southern and Southwest Virginia, Buchanan County included, is agricultural, textile or coal communities suffering in our new economy.

James S. Abrenio is a criminal defense and personal injury lawyer.

DONOHUE: THE POTENTIAL OF TELEHEALTH FOR CANCER PATIENTS IN VIRGINIA

A cancer diagnosis changes everything. First, you receive this earth-shattering news and then, you enter the maze of cancer care, with countless visits to specialists and other health care providers to discuss which treatment options are appropriate for you. Fortunately, there are options, thanks to scientific research and clinical trials. But no matter where you live, you may encounter logistical challenges reaching everyone on your treatment team.

KERN AND JONES: CHANGING HEALTH BY CHANGING THE COMMUNITY

A patient with diabetes is taken to the emergency room with complications. She is treated and released, but just weeks later she ends up back in the emergency room with the same complications. While the patient’s immediate symptoms might have been treated during the initial emergency room visit, the underlying factors behind the readmission might be completely invisible to a physician who is likely seeing and treating this patient for the first time.

Howard Kern is the president and CEO of Sentara Healthcare. Maurice Jones is the president and CEO of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation

DALY: ROANOKE BENEFITS FROM PORT OF VIRGINIA’S IMPORTANCE

This week, the City of Norfolk and the Port of Virginia have the honor and distinction of hosting the American Association of Port Authorities’ (AAPA) 108th annual convention. An alliance of the ports of Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States, AAPA’s convention locale choice recognizes both Virginia’s innovative leadership in creating economic opportunity here at home and its competitive port of entry

Daly is General Manager of Industrial Systems TMEIC Corp. in Roanoke County.

NORTHAM: PROVIDING THE BEST HEALTH CARE FOR VIRGINIANS

Growing up with a working nurse as a mom, I learned early about the importance of access to good health care. That led me to become a doctor in the Army, where I treated wounded soldiers during Desert Storm. After I was discharged, I practiced pediatric neurology for more than 25 years in Norfolk.

Ralph Northam is governor of Virginia